Term Paper: Guerillas Latin America

Latin America is composed of several communities where most of them are living in urban areas. Terrorism was built here through the use of guerrilla warfares. According to O'Connor, "It's a region of militant and lunatic extremism, right-wing death squads, military juntas, Communist heroes, organized crime, left-wing Marxists and Maoists, religious fanatics, and peasant wars (2006)." The most-watched countries are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela (O'Connor, 2006). Their existence was kept active because they invest their business with illegal drugs. The drug traffickers in all regions are getting richer and powerful; they sponsor any kind of activities and manipulate the people because several inhabitants living in the regions are poor.

In 1960, a Peruvian rebellious group called "Moviemiento de la Izquierda Revolucionaria" (MIR), was formed and became active because their aim was to eliminate United States and Japan from building their empire in Peru. The civilian movement was the one responsible for the dismissal of the Chilean armies because of their illegal activities and the violence happened in Puente Alto. The President declared a state of emergency in Santiago Province because of conflicts between the government and people that resulted to arrest of protesters and death of students. Everything that happened in Chile was blamed to MIR by the administration.

In 1971, the Marxist leader in Latin America, Salvador Allende Gossens, was indicted of constraining democracy in Chile. His opponents accused him of violating the constitution through blocking the public reports pertaining to his wrong doings and by taking over private businesses in Chile as well as foreign establishments. This brought the MIR to aggression and to stop the administration from controlling establishments especially those businesses that supports them.

In 1980s, a revolutionary group "Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement" engaged in guerrilla warfare since they were against the government in Peru. They were armed and were supported by the terrorists from other country. The MRTA has drawn much of its revolutionary inspiration and political ideology from Cuba and its long-time leader, Fidel Castro (Kent, 2005). The name Tupac Amaru came from a rebel fighter during the 18th century. He symbolized the struggle of the Peruvian people when the Spaniards invaded their land. The MRTA's objective was to restore democracy and let the inhabitant's rule their country. Violent attacks that happened in Peru were condemned by the government and blamed the MRTA even without any investigation since they knew that MRTA were against the power of foreign investors in their country. Those attacks were inspired by the leftists that came from Sandinistas and Columbian activist groups. According to Kent (2005), the following were the activities of MRTA:

The MRTA apparently selects targets and plans guerrilla operations that minimize the chance of direct confrontation with state security forces.

The MRTA has used kidnapping and bank robberies to finance its revolutionary activities and reportedly derives some income from the illegal drug trade in Peru.

It has successfully utilized the media to bring attention to the movement and to present its message to the public -- at times gaining notoriety through actions such as briefly capturing radio stations or imitating Robin Hood by distributing food to the poor in the slums of Lima.

In 1990, the leader of MRTA, Victor Polay Campos, was caught and sentenced to life imprisonment in Peru. The strength of MRTA did not weaken with the capture of Campos but instead they aggressively attacked the Japanese embassy in 1996 during holiday season. They took hostage of officials and diplomats. The MRTA demanded improve prison conditions, the release of 400 of its members from Peruvian prisons, and safe passage out of Lima for the hostage-taking rebels (Kent, 2005). A few months later the military forces recovered the hostages and killed MRTA fighters by assaulting them. The terrorist leader of MRTA, Nestor Cerpa died during the clash. With the death of Cerpa, the group has weakened but they still exist in the forest of Peru. According to Macko (1997):

Some of the Latin American leftist groups were just plain beaten, like the Tupamaros in Uruguay, one of the earliest rebel groups that began in 1960, but were gone twelve years later. A brutal military crackdown in Argentina in the mid-1970s defeated the Montoneros and the ERP. The Ecuadorian government defeated the Afaro Vive Carajo in the 1980s... Others that made peace with their respective governments were the Farabundo Marti rebels in El Salvador and the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unit, which signed a peace treaty in 1996, after a three-decade struggle."

Colombia

The cruelty of the rich and powerful people led the lower classes to form an organization labeled as guerrilla movement. There were two active parties existed during the 19th century which were the conservatives and the liberals. These two parties started the unreasonable war and usually the most affected with the war were the poor people. Soon, the two parties decided to control the country and any movements that were formed were brutally smothered. According to the Arm the Spirit (2006):

In 1928, the banana multi-national United Fruit Company slaughtered hundreds of strikers waiting for a negotiation delegation. In 1948, the popular liberal left-wing politician Jorge Elicier, who at that point incorporated the hopes of millions of Colombians for a better life, was murdered by order of the oligarchy. This murder was succeeded by the so-called 'violencia' (1948-53), a civil war costing the lives of at least 200,000 people. The population was again slaughtered on the pretext of it being a conflict between liberals and conservatives."

The Civil War continued and the laborers of other regions continued to form groups and kept weapons in order to protect themselves. In 1950's, the two parties made an arrangement where parties can alternately rule the country which they called it "Frente Nacional." The peace agreement between the two became successful but the armed groups did not surrender their weapons. The Independent Republics was an organization formed by the laborers in rural areas who were against with both existing parties. In 1960s, there was a revolutionary priest, Camilo Torres, who organized and tried to unify different organizations that were against conservative and liberal parties. He formed the "Frente Unido del Pueblo" (FUP). The Independent Republics and Frente Unido del Pueblo bonded together in getting rid of oligarchy.

The first modern guerrilla that was formed was the "Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios de Colombia" (FARC-EP), the group came into existence when a massive massacre of Marquetalia happened in 1964. And another influential guerrilla group was formed called the "National Liberation Army" (ELN), inspired by Che Guevarra of Cuba and Camilo Torres joined the organization. The third organization that was formed, the "Maoist People's Liberation Army" (EPL), was an international group of communists people. The three powerful guerrillas existed in rural areas that tried to control the other regions.

The continuous political unrest in Columbia during the seventies brought the people to form other guerrilla organizations. According to Arm the Spirit, "the most important one was the Movement April 19th (M19), which was rapidly becoming known abroad due to their spectacular operations (e.g. The occupation of the embassy of the Dominican Republic in Bogota in 1980) and their significance in the big cities (2006)." The guerrillas were actively participating in the rallies since most of them detested the administration. President Turbay Ayala implemented an anti-terror law where protesters were forced to disperse immediately when there were rallies. Leaders of the rallies and the guerrilla forces were tortured and reports said that some were vanished. The treatments with the protesters were harsh; the M19 continued to grow in other regions and fabricated an army in the south. In 1982, the newly elected President of Cambodia, Belisario Betancur, tried to eliminate the rebel groups. He negotiated with the guerrillas, political prisoners…
[END OF PREVIEW]